LebGeeks

A community for technology geeks in Lebanon.

You are not logged in.

#1 August 2 2019

Tech Guru
Member

3% On All Imports to Lebanon starting August 1st

This is an indirect VAT Tax as if now the goods we purchase impose a VAT taxation + the 3%  it is implicit and accumulated.

3 %  to the supplier
3 %  to the reseller
3 % on the shop (added to his profit margin)

as such

End Product will jump to : 11% + 3(3)

Expect Real Prices to jump by 20% towards the  end customer.

We will start feeling the impact in mid like 2  - 3 months ahead.

It is a rolling effect tax since you are not directly getting the products from shipped goods

Port / Airport Customs - Distributor -  Retail/Seller

Distributor will increase their prices then the seller. Since he will get it from the distributor higher now ,  the end customer will have a 3 × snow ball tax effect.

Last edited by Tech Guru (August 2 2019)

Offline

#2 August 3 2019

infiniteloop
Member

Re: 3% On All Imports to Lebanon starting August 1st

Salaries are dropping and prices are rising, politicians are still doing ''saf2at'' for billions of $
In a normal country the population should go on strike

Offline

#3 August 3 2019

VincentKeyboard
Member

Re: 3% On All Imports to Lebanon starting August 1st

Salaries are getting lower because greedy employers think it is acceptable to say "salaries are like that these days" when they offer you 500 dollars less than what they would have offered in 2016. My neighbor, a university graduate with an emphasis in accounting, got offered an 8 hours a day job at an accounting and auditing firm in Hamra for 400,000LL a month. She said no of course and the person who was going to hire her said well...these are today's salaries..I can just get someone else. She also applied to a mobile phones store that offered her 50,000LL a week for 10 hour shift.

In reality, I think that by the end of the summer, there is going to be much less external competition over jobs so new hires can hopefully start requesting higher salaries.

Offline

#4 August 3 2019

potato
Member

Re: 3% On All Imports to Lebanon starting August 1st

Yes thank you lebanese politician s for your greedy laws ans making our lives even harder. No wonder this country is collapsing.

Offline

#5 August 3 2019

rolf
Member

Re: 3% On All Imports to Lebanon starting August 1st

That sucks.
I think it does not apply to food and medication.

Last edited by rolf (August 3 2019)

Offline

#6 August 4 2019

VincentKeyboard
Member

Re: 3% On All Imports to Lebanon starting August 1st

Work availability and salaries depend on the domain and location.
I had two neighbors where were ~40 years old and twins. Growing up, they were extremely similar physically, including medical issues. Both would get sick on the same day and then get better together. One worked as a cook in a catering company and another one worked at a store that sold water pumps. For medical reasons which included breathing and lung problems, they had to leave Beirut and spend two days in a hospital somewhere in a mountain far from Beirut (I'm not sure where).
After getting better, the cook landed a job at a resort in only three days while it took his brother four months of searching every day from morning till evening to find a job he was qualified for.
And guess what? Both are now getting paid almost double what they were making in Beirut.
An increase in taxation only aggravates the situation for people in Beirut.

Offline

#7 August 4 2019

infiniteloop
Member

Re: 3% On All Imports to Lebanon starting August 1st

rolf wrote:

That sucks.
I think it does not apply to food and medication.

To whatever it applies it's too much, imagine +3% on mobile phones,TV and cars for example knowing Lebanese importers will count it as +5%
We should ask for a raise of salary +200$ to cope with it
I really don'' understand these politicians, we can do billions of $ on tourism but they don't care, and by tourism I mean mostly Chinese as they come in masses and pay without limits, the old days of Arab tourists are over, they should get over it and stop waiting for them only.
To seduce the Chinese and Europeans, they should of course enlarge the airport, make advertising on foreign TVs and prepare the roads to touristic areas like Balouet Balaa (the road there was horrific in May), it's an investment worth doing, instead of sucking Lebanese blood till the last drop

Last edited by infiniteloop (August 4 2019)

Offline

#8 August 6 2019

Tech Guru
Member

Re: 3% On All Imports to Lebanon starting August 1st

VincentKeyboard wrote:

Work availability and salaries depend on the domain and location.
I had two neighbors where were ~40 years old and twins. Growing up, they were extremely similar physically, including medical issues. Both would get sick on the same day and then get better together. One worked as a cook in a catering company and another one worked at a store that sold water pumps. For medical reasons which included breathing and lung problems, they had to leave Beirut and spend two days in a hospital somewhere in a mountain far from Beirut (I'm not sure where).
After getting better, the cook landed a job at a resort in only three days while it took his brother four months of searching every day from morning till evening to find a job he was qualified for.
And guess what? Both are now getting paid almost double what they were making in Beirut.
An increase in taxation only aggravates the situation for people in Beirut.


Best bet in this particular case is luck not location / domain.

Graduate Numbers Are Booming

Refugees Numbers Are Booming with no control , Snapping opportunities from locals

Bottlenecked Saturated Market with Experienced People ( Tough Competition)

Nepotism

Offline

#9 August 6 2019

Tech Guru
Member

Re: 3% On All Imports to Lebanon starting August 1st

I have just went though importations for Computer related stuff this morning, first day of the added 3% on imports.

The clearance and import was done today, day of the applied  3% import duty increase.

It was done under my name and cleared as any direct importer would in the land.

So, as expected the import duty for electronics related ( or computer related) went from 5% to 8%.

On which base the 11% VAT is calculated.

Meaning, once the importer is charged these initial extra 3% import duty, no added 3% will be transferred to the wholesaler or retailer.

Once the importer paid those, the item is free of extra duty up to the VAT (in the final retail store).

In effect, on top of the direct 3% of duty paid by the importer, they will be a reflection (or increase) of 0.33% after VAT has been applied.

Hope this helps.

Last edited by Tech Guru (August 6 2019)

Offline

#10 August 6 2019

rolf
Member

Re: 3% On All Imports to Lebanon starting August 1st

infiniteloop wrote:

I really don't understand these politicians,

They are the ones who don't understand us. Do they think they can build a country on the back of a population that is depressed, insecure and psychotic?

There are a lot of things that needs changing and work in Lebanon, and at the end of the list, last but not least, all the faces that remind the people of civil war have to go, this means most of the politicians and the political families.

This is why so many persons consider this list of things then consider that it is easier to just emigrate. Not that emigration is easy, it just appears easier than bringing the standards of living in Lebanon up to expectations.

But now that I think of it, I think this country needs just two things and all the rest will follow. These are:

1. Hope
2. Time

But, eh, personally I have barely enough hope or time for myself, so...

Last edited by rolf (August 6 2019)

Offline

#11 August 6 2019

VincentKeyboard
Member

Re: 3% On All Imports to Lebanon starting August 1st

Time is always the solution. Lack of it is our biggest enemy.

Offline

#12 August 7 2019

infiniteloop
Member

Re: 3% On All Imports to Lebanon starting August 1st

The big problem as you said is the lack of hope, and this hope can't be given without a political/economical plan when there are elections, and last time I checked I didn't see any plan just leaders fighting for power

Offline

#13 August 8 2019

rolf
Member

Re: 3% On All Imports to Lebanon starting August 1st

infiniteloop wrote:

a political/economical plan when there are elections, and last time I checked I didn't see any plan just leaders fighting for power

Yes that would be really nice. A simple list on which elected persons can be held accountable. Like a contract. It sounds nice.
It has to be simple achievements with deadlines.

Offline

#14 August 20 2019

anayman_k7
Member

Re: 3% On All Imports to Lebanon starting August 1st

Today I noticed this message on PcandParts home page

Dear Valued clients,
Taking into consideration that below (law number 89/2019) is effective as of 1 August, all imported goods will be subject to an additional 3% tax.
For all on-going orders which have been previously placed and not received yet, the increase is effective and prices will be revised.

Offline

#15 August 20 2019

TokMe3HrsToSolveChallenge
Member

Re: 3% On All Imports to Lebanon starting August 1st

I emailed them about it since my 2070 super was DOA and I am waiting for it to get back in stock to get a replacement this is what they said
"You will not pay any additional fees

3% is base tax added on everything included in the price we put on our website

VAT is still 11%VAT"

Offline

#16 August 29 2019

serouj
Member

Re: 3% On All Imports to Lebanon starting August 1st

rolf wrote:
infiniteloop wrote:

I really don't understand these politicians,

They are the ones who don't understand us. Do they think they can build a country on the back of a population that is depressed, insecure and psychotic?

There are a lot of things that needs changing and work in Lebanon, and at the end of the list, last but not least, all the faces that remind the people of civil war have to go, this means most of the politicians and the political families.

This is why so many persons consider this list of things then consider that it is easier to just emigrate. Not that emigration is easy, it just appears easier than bringing the standards of living in Lebanon up to expectations.

But now that I think of it, I think this country needs just two things and all the rest will follow. These are:

1. Hope
2. Time

But, eh, personally I have barely enough hope or time for myself, so...

Hey sorry i disagree, as long as politicians can still get through their deals without public outlash (or with ineffective and useless outlash) the situation will remain the same. As William Benjamin said - "Every rise of fascism bears witness to a failed revolution", and i believe it applies to any sort of tyranny and not just fascism.

The worse the situation gets, the worse people will start to behave - and with just the right amount of manipulation we will start killing each other again. We are an extremely short-sighted and over confident bunch of people, and deep down most of us are as corrupt as the politicians we blame our misfortunes on.

Hard times, we are mutating -and our consciousness and emotional states have become conditioned by the information we consume because it all happened too quick and we failed to adapt.

Often we say, heij tetfalsaf. And i will say as Slavoj Zizek says - "the first duty of philosophy is making you understand what deep shit you are in." Before that, we're wasting our time even bothering to think of all this.

We said, l jil l jdid bado yghayer. But look at my generation, a bunch of droids voting for the same person their parents voted for.

Offline

#17 September 1 2019

rolf
Member

Re: 3% On All Imports to Lebanon starting August 1st

serouj wrote:

We said, l jil l jdid bado yghayer. But look at my generation, a bunch of droids voting for the same person their parents voted for.

Basically people have to walk the talk.

Beside "political families", I see a lot of problematic behaviors in the "new generation" supposedly because they grew up in an environment where these behaviors are normal - and obviously there is safety in normalcy.

Old ideas will go away when they are challenged and replaced by new ones.

However I do think that hope is very important and it seems to be in short supply.

Last edited by rolf (September 1 2019)

Offline

#18 September 2 2019

infiniteloop
Member

Re: 3% On All Imports to Lebanon starting August 1st

The only things that will help Lebanon's economical crisis are:
-Tourism (convincing the Chinese and stop waiting for the Arabs to come)
-Pouvoir d'achat (purchasing power) meaning employees salaries should raise so they can start buying in Lebanon, coupled to a decrease of prices on mass products (supermarket stuff) this will boost sales and companies will be making money again, everybody will be happy ad the Lebanese economy finally moving to a better place
Unfortunately politicians are doing the exact opposite, they are still stuck in the 90s waiting for the rich Arab tourist to come and throw money (they won't come anymore and they are less and less naively generous) and they think the solution to make money (for their own bank accounts) is to create new taxes every year while salaries are still too low for the large number of Lebanese

Offline

Board footer